Superman (2025) Review

Gunn's smartest move was to begin three years in, bleeding in a snowfield, with a dog. There is no rocket, no wheat field and no long wait for the suit, and the confidence of that opening buys the film enormous goodwill. David Corenswet plays the character as fundamentally kind and slightly embarrassed about it, which is exactly right, and Rachel Brosnahan's Lois is the best version of her since Margot Kidder, sharp and adversarial in an interview scene that is the film's strongest writing.

Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor is a genuine achievement, a petty billionaire running a proxy war through a pocket universe and a room of paid commenters, and he is frightening because he is recognisable. The film is also badly overstuffed. A whole superhero team, an interdimensional prison, an invaded country, a kaiju and a dog with heat vision are competing for the same two hours, and the plot mechanics in the middle hour arrive faster than they land. Some of the needle drops are lazy. It is generous, funny and warm, and the character needed that; the crowding is what keeps it from greatness.